Growing up in Canton, Michigan — the suburbs of MoTown — all little James wanted to do was sing. He was in the school chorus as soon as he turned 10 and thought he would never look back. Thing was, Little James was better at hockey then he was a singer. Hockey just paid better and, well, in was kind of fun to play after all.

Years down the road, James had left his passion for vocals in the past. Then, one day, Sean Avery — who had heard of James’ gift — asked if he could hear some of his tunes. Everything changed right then and there on the big stage in New York. Little James was now Big James and was ready for the biggest moment of his life. But sometimes, at that exact moment you work your whole life for, things don’t go quite as you imagined they would. Your microphone malfunctions. You start to get a cold sweat and then, in a panic, pretend the microphone is a Shake Weight and end up as a YouTube clip that haunts you forever. No matter what exactly happened, that was the last anyone ever heard of Little James’ signing.